Easter 2016

Dan's Birthday

The kids pooled their money to buy Dan a new saw!

Everyone gets involved when it's time for eclair cake!

Easton and Calvin cooked breakfast for a men's group that was meeting on Dan's birthday and they surprised Dan by customizing some pancakes for him and having the group sing Happy Birthday!

Christmas Eve Day

We had Dan's dad, Glen, and his lovely bride, Helejean here for Christmas!  On Christmas Eve Day we took advantage of the very warm weather and headed to the Portland Head Light for a picnic (pics at the bottom.)  Then on Christmas Eve we gathered round the fire for  some yummy food and watching some video clips put out by Youversion that make the Christmas Story come alive.

Easton and Calvin stayed home to recover from colds and work on a house project, so that's why they're noticeably absent from the photos below:

December

Random moments in December

Calvin reading Winnie the Pooh to Emmery at the library

Silliness on a horse-drawn wagon ride at a local Christmas event

Thank you, library, for sponsoring a make-your-own "gingerbread" house activity so I don't have to have the mess at home. :)  Emmery came up with the idea to make a deck out of pretzels, and she wiped her hands clean every time she got frosting on them.  She did NOT want to discard her house, so we are holding on to it until some unknown date...

Annual sugar cookie-making session with Dad. (And I just recently figured out that I regularly hold my oft-lotioned finger on the eye of my phone, so that explains why sometimes my pictures are all blurry!  Well, I'm not going to avoid recording our memories because of some sub-par photos. :)

Tio Juan  Carlos taught Abigail how to make pupusas, and she's treated us to a couple fantastic pupusa dinners!

And of course it's the most fun when everyone gets involved!

One morning while I was reading aloud to the kids, I decided to snap a shot of a scene that I can take for granted but will be a precious memory in the future (big kids were sculpting clay and Emmery was playing with her beloved "hollow tree" Little People toy.)

Each school day the big kids have 15 minutes of one-on-one time with Emmery and they always start it by reading to her.

Squeezing in another story at the library.

50s???

We keep having crazy warm days and I'm loving it!!! The kids are playing lots of basketball, and Emmery even snacked on some fresh kale from our garden!

Christmas Touches

I must say it's been lovely to be settled in our home this year and not moving right in the middle of the Christmas season. Here are a few of the Christmas touches we've made in our home...

Oh Christmas Tree!

After MANY years of an artificial Christmas tree, we all decided that it was time to go for the real deal this year, and we had a fantastic time choosing the tree and getting it set up!

Ocean Memories

It was great to have unseasonably warm weather so we could share an afternoon at the ocean with our friends!
First, swinging...

Then, hiking along the lovely trail and watching the sun set!

We spent the evening at LL Bean, including a dinner picnic right by their Christmas light display.

Gary and Emmery getting some selfies:

Gaby & Abigail catching some ocean breezes:

So thankful for my friendship through the years with this fantastic lady!

Emmery really attached herself to Isaac and he was a good sport about playing with her!

Right before they left, Emmery ran upstairs to get one of her dolls to give to Isaac.  We convinced her to just let him get a picture of it so that we could avoid the inevitable tears from generosity regret. :)